Install Mattermost server from a tarball 

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These instructions outline how to install Mattermost Server on a 64-bit Linux host from a compressed tarball, and assume the IP address of the Mattermost server is 10.10.10.2.

Minimum system requirements

  • Hardware: 2 vCPUs/cores with 4GB RAM (support for 1,000-2,000 users)

  • Database: MySQL v8+ or PostgreSQL v12+

  • Network ports required:

    • Application ports 80/443, TLS, TCP Inbound

    • Administrator Console port 8065, TLS, TCP Inbound

    • SMTP port 10025, TCP/UDP Outbound

Deploy Generic Linux

  1. Install and configure a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. Refer to one of the guides below to deploy the database based on your operating system:

  2. Log in to the server that will host Mattermost Server and open a terminal window.

  3. Download the latest version of the Mattermost Server. In the following command, replace X.X.X with the version that you want to download:

    wget https://releases.mattermost.com/X.X.X/mattermost-X.X.X-linux-amd64.tar.gz

  4. Extract the Mattermost Server files.

    tar -xvzf mattermost*.gz

  5. Move the extracted file to the /opt directory.

    sudo mv mattermost /opt

  6. Create the storage directory for files.

    sudo mkdir /opt/mattermost/data

Note

The storage directory will contain all the files and images that your users post to Mattermost, so you need to make sure that the drive is large enough to hold the anticipated number of uploaded files and images.

  1. Set up a system user and group called mattermost that will run this service, and set the ownership and permissions.

  1. Create the Mattermost user and group.

    sudo useradd --system --user-group mattermost

  2. Set the user and group mattermost as the owner of the Mattermost files.

    sudo chown -R mattermost:mattermost /opt/mattermost

  3. Give write permissions to the mattermost group.

    sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/mattermost

  1. Set up the database driver in the file /opt/mattermost/config/config.json. Open the file in a text editor and make the following changes:

    If you’re using PostgreSQL:

    Set "DriverName" to "postgres" Set "DataSource" to the following value, replacing <mmuser-password> and <host-name-or-IP> with the appropriate values: "postgres://mmuser:<mmuser-password>@<host-name-or-IP>:5432/mattermost?sslmode=disable&connect_timeout=10",

    If you’re using MySQL:

    Set "DriverName" to "mysql" Set "DataSource" to the following value, replacing <mmuser-password> and <host-name-or-IP> with the appropriate values. Also make sure that the database name is mattermost instead of mattermost_test: "mmuser:<mmuser-password>@tcp(<host-name-or-IP>:3306)/mattermost?charset=utf8mb4,utf8&writeTimeout=30s"

  2. Test the Mattermost server to make sure everything works.

  1. Change to the Mattermost directory.

    cd /opt/mattermost

  2. Start the Mattermost server as the user mattermost.

    sudo -u mattermost bin/mattermost

When the server starts, it shows some log information and the text Server is listening on :8065. You can stop the server by pressing Ctrl C on Windows or Linux, or ⌘ C on Mac, in the terminal window.

  1. Set up Mattermost to use systemd for starting and stopping.

  1. Create a systemd unit file.

    sudo touch /lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service

  2. Open the unit file as root in a text editor, and copy the following lines into the file.

    [Unit]
Description=Mattermost
After=network.target
After=postgresql.service
BindsTo=postgresql.service
[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/opt/mattermost/bin/mattermost
TimeoutStartSec=3600
KillMode=mixed
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
WorkingDirectory=/opt/mattermost
User=mattermost
Group=mattermost
LimitNOFILE=49152
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note

  • If you’re using MySQL, replace postgresql.service with mysql.service in two places in the [Unit] section.

  • If you’ve installed MySQL or PostgreSQL on a dedicated server, you need to remove the After=mysql.service and BindsTo=mysql.service or the After=postgresql.service and BindsTo=postgresql.service lines in the [Unit] section or the Mattermost service won’t start.

  1. Make systemd load the new unit.

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  2. Check to make sure that the unit was loaded.

    sudo systemctl status mattermost.service

You should see an output similar to the following:

mattermost.service - Mattermost
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)

  1. Start the service.

    sudo systemctl start mattermost.service

  2. Verify that Mattermost is running.

    curl http://localhost:8065

You should see the HTML that’s returned by the Mattermost server. If a firewall is used, external requests to port 8065 may be blocked. Use sudo ufw allow 8065 to open port 8065.

  1. Set Mattermost to start on machine start up.

    sudo systemctl enable mattermost.service

Once you’re Mattermost server is up and running, create your first Mattermost user, invite more users, and explore the Mattermost platform.